David Novarro: We have Mayor Adams on the phone with us right now, and mayor, thank you for making time for us. Give us an update. What are the hot spots you're looking at?
Mayor Eric Adams: Well, today we've also issued a state of emergency because the city is under a severe thunderstorm watch until eight p.m., and a flood watch until tomorrow. A number of our highways and roadways are starting to flood, and we're asking New Yorkers to stay off those areas. And if you have to take the subway, if it's flooded in the subway, we're asking, do not enter for your own safety.
Sandra Bookman: That state of emergency, mayor, explain to our audience what that allows you to do.
Mayor Adams: It allows me to close down certain roadways and to execute a plan that many of our agencies are already knowledgeable of on how they kick in gear, and that's the FDNY, DEP, and other agencies. It allows them to go out and execute a plan that has already been predetermined by our emergency weather coordinator– our severe weather coordinator.
Novarro: Mayor, we're looking at some video of the Clearview Expressway that just completely flooded. Have you gotten any word of any rescues or anyone getting injured so far?
Mayor Adams: Not at this time. We are monitoring, and both NYPD, FDNY, and our DEP, they're all monitoring the situation so we can respond rapidly to any calls of services. And we're asking people to sign up for NotifyNYC and call 311 if they need additional information.
Bookman: Mayor, we referenced this a little bit earlier. We seem to keep seeing these kinds of weather events happening more frequently. How do you feel about the city's preparations in terms of being able to handle these increased severe weather events?
Mayor Adams: I think that if you look at each one of these severe weather events, back in, I believe it was either '20 or '21, when we lost a number of New Yorkers in basement apartments, that was a real learning experience, I was the borough president at the time.
Now we have looked at those areas where we have basement apartments located. We're doing earlier notifications, and we're looking at– we have several drills and practices so we can respond to these weather emergencies rapidly. Each time you see these severe storms, it's a learning experience, and you keep adjusting to make sure that we don't want loss of lives.
Novarro: Mayor Adams, thank you so much for joining us, helping us brief the public on the very latest event. We appreciate that. Thank you.
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